HALIFAX, N.S.—He plays the kind of doofus you really don’t want teaching your kids. Somebody not even Bill 115 should force back to the classroom.

In real life, however, Gerry Dee could teach a master class on focus and multi-tasking.

The comedian, whose CBC comedy series Mr. D returns for a second season Monday at 8 p.m., is involved in just about every aspect of the show.

Season 2 starts off with some star power. Red hot comedian Russell Peters is on Monday’s premiere.

“We’re very excited about that,” says Dee. “I called him out of the blue, thought it was a long shot. He was in Dubai when I reached him and he called me right back, said he was a fan of the show and would love to do it.”

Professional poker player Daniel Negreanu also appears on the sitcom this season. Does he beat Mr. D at poker? Dee doesn’t want to show all his cards but says Negreanu was a good sport.

Mr. D also finds a little romance is Season 2 with a Scottish lass, a nod to Dee’s own heritage.

On the final week of production last August, Dee was playing opposite co-stars Bette MacDonald, Jonathan Torrens and Mark Forward in a scene shot on the main school set. The sound stage was once a Halifax army base curling rink.

Dee — who really was a schoolteacher for 10 years before turning full-time to comedy — stepped into the scene and delivered funny take after take, as focused and inventive as seasoned comedy veterans. Between takes, he huddled with executive producer and co-creator Michael Volpe, Samples, and writers Kurt Smeaton and Andrew De Angelis as they prepped the next set-up.

Sprung for lunch, Dee was on the phone, sorting out his upcoming comedy road tour, details on his book release or the latest update on his three children.

“I think part of that is because he had a career that he stopped,” says Little.

Dee, a De La Salle grad who later taught at the same school, walked away from teaching in his early 30s.

If Dee was going to pursue his comedy dream, “he wasn’t going to just wade into it the way an 18n-year-old wades into it,” said Little. “He was going to do it right, otherwise he’d be screwed — and you can see that in everything he does now.”

Teaching, however, would have been a steadier choice.

“Dee went through hell to get this show,” says Little. A development deal with the Comedy Network fell through. He shot two pilots for CBC before Mr. D went to series. “So it’s not like everything’s been handed to him.”

MacDonald marvels at his good nature under pressure.

“He works the longest, craziest hours, and he’s writing and producing, and he has a family,” she says. “And he’s consistent. He is as creative and lovely and sweet at the end of the day as he is at the beginning.”

There was a break in the shoot, allowing Dee time for a fast interview.

“Strike when the iron is hot,” he says, acknowledging his frantic schedule. Why does he work so hard? His parents’ struggle to provide, he says, remains a big motivator. “I saw my dad working so hard driving a bus for 23 years and never having anything.”

So why leave a steady teaching job for the risky world of Canadian television? It’s not all about money, says Dee. “You ask any actor or comedian or anybody that’s in entertainment, the creative process and just being able to do what you want to do is so vital. Really, it’s work; we all want to work.”

With everything else going on, the 43-year-old Scarborough native found time to write a memoir this summer called Teaching: It’s Harder Than It Looks.

“I never thought I was much of a writer. What helped was this, right?” he says, pointing at the interviewer’s digital recorder. “I didn’t write it, I talked it and they typed it.”

Dee calls it “a teacher’s handbook on how not to teach.” Feedback from teachers so far is that it is bang on and hilarious.

He also worked in a 20-city standup comedy tour in the fall before taking some time off to spend with his young family.

“It never stops and you don’t want it to,” he says. “In entertainment, you’re only as good as your last show, so I’m just trying to keep the ball moving.”

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